Kyiv «Dynamo» captain Vitaliy Buyalskyi summarized the results of the match against Cherkasy LNZ (0:1) in the 12th round of the Ukrainian championship for «ProFootball Digital».
— Did you expect the match to be so difficult?
— I didn’t think we would lose, but I understood the game would be tough. We only trained together yesterday after the train ride. I think we didn’t have enough time to fully recover, perhaps we lacked some emotions here and there. That’s how it turned out.
— When the team wins after such trips, everyone says everything is good, and when they lose, they start looking for reasons. In your opinion, what is the main problem today?
— It’s hard to say for sure. Perhaps there was a lack of freshness, maybe concentration. But we are analyzing everything together — the coaching staff and us, the players.
— It seemed that the team lacked creativity in attack. Do you agree?
— Yes, we didn’t create many chances. In the first half, Kabaev had a good chance when I passed the ball to him. But LNZ prepared for this game for a week, they analyzed us well, each player. We probably couldn’t show everything we planned in attack. When you lose the ball a few times, you lose confidence, and the opponent is good at counterattacking — that’s how we conceded.
— In several episodes, «Dynamo» seemed unprepared for losing the ball. Why did that happen?
— Maybe there’s some truth to that. We were too stretched across the field. When losing the ball, everyone must immediately go into tackling, but we didn’t always do that. Because of this, the opponent had zones for counterattacks. LNZ has two strikers, they don’t always engage in tackling, they stand, wait, and immediately pick up speed when we lose the ball.
— After the matches in European competitions, you played against teams that prepared only to face you. Did it affect you?
— Yes, we understood that. We knew it would be a very difficult match. We prepared seriously, but probably not everyone fully recovered. We each need to draw conclusions.
— «Dynamo» is now seven points behind «Shakhtar.» Is this the objective reality or too much?
— I think it’s too much. We lost points in matches we should have won — against «Oleksandria,» «Karpaty,» «Metalist,» «Zorya.» We conceded in the last minutes. In these games, we, in my opinion, played well, but didn’t seal the victory.
— Last week, there were many emotions — the match with «Shakhtar,» a 6:0 victory in European competitions. What’s the team’s emotional state now?
— When you win, there are many emotions. And when you don’t win, they quickly disappear because you give your all, and there’s no result. Fortunately, there’s now a break for international matches — we can rest a bit, recover, and prepare further with new strength. I think everything will be fine.